


The Blue Paladin

by RinHaruismyOTP



Series: Klance One-Shots [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Boys In Love, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Season 2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 21:06:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9566327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RinHaruismyOTP/pseuds/RinHaruismyOTP
Summary: “Wicked!” said Chris, running up close to Blue and grinning. “Hey girl. I’m gonna be your new paladin,” he announced.Keith doesn't want Lance to leave.





	

There were people in Red. Provisions were being loaded on board the lion, various mechanics swarmed around her, pointing at and fiddling with wires. Keith had never been and never would be a mechanic, but he couldn’t really understand why Red was in need of any modifications. He was only still around in the hopes that his intimidating figure would stop any of the mechanics from trying to add new and exciting improvements to his spacecraft.

To be honest, he trusted Garrison mechanics about as far as he could throw them.

Shiro seemed to have had the same idea as he had, hanging around his own lion anxiously. He kept raising his arm and opening his mouth as if to say something whenever the black lion was victim to a hammer or screwdriver, before forcing his arm down and mouth closed again, sharing a look with Keith. Keith would flash him a tense smile and then turn back to his own lion, fixing anyone who looked up at him with a steely glare.

The yellow, green and blue lions were, for the moment, unattended by their pilots. Hunk and Pidge had left almost half an hour ago to meet the new recruit, and their lions were now almost packed full with food supplies, equipment with which to record their findings, and spare clothes. The last boxes were being added now, and Keith couldn’t help the uneasy feeling that came with watching strangers crawling around inside the lions, after so long of only the Voltron pilots, Allura and Coran being the only ones to come near them (with the exception of whichever enemy they happened to be fighting at that time). It was strange, but he was pretty sure he now felt more nervous with humans playing around with the robots than he would were it an alien species like the Olkari. A race of genius engineers definitely sounded better than anyone with links to the Garrison.

“Is that her?” The voice was eager, and Keith immediately groaned internally, wishing this meeting never had to happen. He turned around to face the door, where Chris, the new blue paladin, was staring forward at the blue lion, with metaphorical hearts in his eyes. He swivelled around to Pidge, who was now entering with Hunk, pointing excitedly. “Is it? That’s her, right?”

“Yes, that’s the blue lion,” said Pidge, sounding entirely unamused. Her mouth was pulled tight.

“Wicked!” said Chris, running up close to Blue and grinning. “Hey girl. I’m gonna be your new paladin,” he announced, and Keith winced at the enthusiasm, along with the anticipation of Blue’s reaction to Chris. The group had skyped the younger boy a couple of times since learning he would be taking Lance’s place, but the real challenge was how Blue felt about him. As long as she didn’t…

Blue’s force field went up.

“Dammit,” Hunk muttered. Pidge swore.

***

“You’re really not coming?”

Lance played with the aftershave in his hands, refusing to look up at Keith. “You know I’m not,” he said quietly, handing the aftershave over to the other man.

“Lance…”

“I can’t do it, Keith,” he said suddenly, looking up and meeting those deep purple eyes. “I can’t leave again, I can’t leave my family behind like that, _again_. I’m sorry.” And he was, he really was, because letting go of Keith was surely the hardest thing he’d ever have to do. He’d been hopeful at first, thinking maybe Keith would stay on Earth too, with him, but Keith had his own agenda, finding out anything he could about his mother and her connection to the Galra. Then Hunk had raised his hopes again, telling him how Blue was rejecting his replacement.

He’d almost felt proud.

But now Keith was here, a month later, telling him they were leaving later that day. Blue had finally let down her defences a couple of days ago, for reasons unknown to Lance, and after letting Chris get used to her controls for a couple of days, they were taking off, meeting Allura and Coran in the castleship, and returning to their duty of protecting the universe.

Without Lance.

It stung. It stung a lot, and yet it was completely Lance’s choice. They’d all wanted him to come back, but the fact was that he’d hurt his family a lot by leaving without a goodbye the first time, letting them assume him dead, and his abuela was getting on in years. He needed to stay with them for now.

Keith had fallen silent, and Lance almost jumped when he felt his hand on his, picking up his fingers one by one and running his own along them. “I get it,” Keith said finally. “I do. Family’s important to you. It is to me, too, that’s why I’m going back out there. But you should know… my family is never really complete until you’re there.”

Lance felt a lump in his throat. He had promised himself, he had _promised himself_ he wouldn’t cry. Something had flown into his eye, it must have done, why else would they be watering? “How often will you be coming back?” he asked, wincing when his voice cracked.

Keith sighed. “I don’t know. Allura says she’d rather only return when it’s absolutely necessary to save resources. And I get it, I don’t really feel like having to take part in one of Coran’s experiments again when the lenses are too cracked to use.”

Lance nodded, feeling more than a bit broken. All his friends would be leaving without him, and soon. He tried to imagine what it would have been like to return to space were one of the others the one staying, but try as he might he couldn’t picture it. There had been that brief time when Shiro had gone missing that they’d had to operate one man down, but they’d barely functioned then, anxious and upset, only pulling themselves together with the goal of finding their leader again clearly in front of them. He couldn’t imagine purposefully leaving one of them behind.

A knock came at the door. Lance called out to admit them, stepping back from Keith, and his mother poked her head around the door. “Keith, there are people here for you,” she said softly, then left when Keith thanked her.

“‘People’?” Lance asked, frowning.

Keith rolled his eyes. “The Garrison,” he said. “They want to give us a ‘proper farewell’ this time. Basically they’re sucking up to Shiro and trying to make him forget how they’ve treated us in the past.” He paused. “Lance, this is… this is goodbye. For… awhile.”

Lance took a shaky breath. “I know,” he said, staring at the ground in an attempt to stop the tears.

Keith nodded absent-mindedly. “I-” he said, then cut himself off, shaking his head. “Never mind. Goodbye Lance.”

“Goodbye, Keith,” Lance whispered, catching Keith’s eyes and noticing that they, too, were shining with unshed tears. Keith nodded again, and turning and walking towards the door. He reached out for the handle, and hesitated, not moving to go any farther.

“You- you know how I feel about you,” he mumbled, then looked back at Lance over his shoulder. “It’s not going to change anytime soon. Or ever, most likely.” He looked forward once again and pushed down the handle. “I love you Lance,” he said, before opening the door.

And then he was gone.

***

Lance’s mother found him fifteen or so minutes later, sat on his bed staring into space. Seeing him, she sighed and sat down at his feet.

“You know, your abuela’s pretty sturdy,” she commented, and Lance raised his eyes to her.

“What?”

“Your abuela,” she repeated. “She’s made of strong stuff. Got a good few years left in her.”

Lance frowned. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked, wiping away an almost dry tear from his cheek.

His mother was quiet for a moment. “We missed you, while you were gone,” she said. “We missed you a lot. They told us you were most likely dead, but none of us ever really believed it.”

Lance was shocked. “You didn’t?”

She shook her head, a sad smile on her face. “You’ve always been the adventurous type, _querido_ ,” she said. “We knew you’d be back someday.” She took a deep breath. “Go with your friends, Lance.”

“What?” he said, eyes wide. “Why?”

His mother gave a laugh. “You’ll be miserable here, Lance. You’re already miserable and they haven’t even left yet. We’ll be fine, we’ve missed you before and we’ll do it again, but this time we’ll know you’re happy and making a difference too. And besides,” she sent him a look, eyes glinting. “Who are we to keep you away from the man you love?”

“Mamá!” he gasped, cheeks flaming. His heart was racing, brain whirring. “But, all of you…”

“Will be _fine,_ ” she assured him. “I promise you. Your sisters may be a little tetchy at first, but they’ll understand.”

Lance stared at her. She was a stubborn woman, he knew she wouldn’t change her mind now. And as much as he would miss his family, he couldn’t bear to miss the chance of this _thing_ with Keith, or of knowing he was part of something bigger, protecting the _universe_. He could stay with his friends…

“I love you mamá,” he sobbed, throwing his arms around her. “I love you so much.”

***

Keith stood, a flute of champagne in his hand, watching as people danced around him. He was painfully aware of how little he could drink before safely piloting Red, but all he wanted to do at the moment was drink until he forgot about everything.

Before today, nothing had seemed concrete about Lance leaving. He’d been convinced he would change his mind, that he’d pop up and say, ‘just kidding!’ with a smirk and laughter in those beautiful eyes. And yet…

Keith took a gulp of his champagne, surprised when it finished the glass. He walked to the refreshments table, figuring he should start on the water early. There came a pat on his shoulder and Shiro came into his line of sight, filling up his own glass in the same way. “He didn’t come?” he asked grimly, and Keith shook his head.

“No, he didn’t come.”

The doors opened then, but Keith couldn’t see through the throng of people, nor did he really care to. But then the murmuring started, and Keith noticed people stumbling as if being pushed. He narrowed his eyes, curious, and then-

Lance burst out of the crowd, directly in his line of sight. He was looking at him, panting, and Keith felt his heart skip a beat. Lance was – and Keith pinched himself, just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming – here. Lance was here.

“You-” he started, but was cut off by Lance leaping at him, wrapping his arms around his neck and pulling him in close. Keith couldn’t stop himself from letting his eyes fall shut and taking a deep breath in of Lance’s scent. His heart hurt in relief at the familiar smell.

“Keith,” Lance whispered into his ear, and Keith had to bite his lip to stop himself from crying.

“Lance,” he whispered back, then pulled away from the embrace. “Are you- are you coming with us?” he asked, and Lance beamed.

“Yeah. My mum persuaded me,” he said, and Keith felt the grin spread across his face. Then Lance’s face turned stern. “We are, however, going to have to come home for more visits than Allura’s been planning. I don’t care if I have to care for and manage to whatever-they’re-called lenses myself, I’m not leaving my family for that long again any time soon.”

Keith smiled. “I’m sure we can persuade her,” he said, unable to stop himself from staring in what he imagined was a rather dreamy way at Lance. He didn’t care, Lance was his sun, his stars, his galaxy, and he was here with him. “I love you,” he said, for the second time that day.

Lance’s smile grew even wider. “Dios, Keith, I love you too,” he said, and Keith leaned upward to meet his lips in a kiss.

Lance, however, leaned back before their lips could meet, placing a finger over Keith’s. “Wait a minute, I just realised – what about Chris?” he asked.

Keith groaned. “Don’t remind me of that boy,” he said darkly, remembering his relentless enthusiasm. “He went home a few days ago.”

Lance eyes grew wide. “Why?” he asked.

Keith shrugged. “Blue never accepted him. In the end he gave up. We were just going to pull her up to the ship,” he explained.

“So why did you lie about it earlier?” Lance asked, crossing his arms. Keith smirked.

“I may have been hoping you would come down here and try to start a fight for ownership over her,” he said.

Lance snorted. “Hey, no one owns Blue,” he pointed out, and Keith conceded. “Now, come here,” he said, leaning down and capturing Keith’s lips in a firm kiss that he was sure he would remember for as long as he lived.

After a while, Keith pulled back, heart melting at Lance’s smile. He let Lance be taken for hugs and back slaps by the rest of the team. Shiro was holding a radio up to Lance’s mouth, and Keith was sure Allura and Coran were on the other end, hearing the good news.

Lance looked happy. He was laughing and smiling, a little sniffly but holding it together. Keith wondered if Lance would open up to him later, let out his feelings of joy at being back, and sadness at leaving his family. Keith would be there for him, would hold him, help him argue his case for returning to Earth often against Allura if necessary. He would do anything for him.

He was so in love.

**Author's Note:**

> Woo hope you enjoyed! Feedback is always appreciated and if you notice any mistakes please point them out to me!!


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